Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by John Wagner

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Reviews

• 
  Ill D

  Oh boy, here we go again.
  
  I couldn’t help myself. Really. I’m not sure why the spirit moved me, I just had to
  reread Shadows of the Empire.
  
  And just as before, I just got more of the same shit. Right off the bat, I was continually surprised by just how goddamn redundant Shadows of the Empire really is. Unless you’re into chugging George Lucas’ commercial piss on tap, the essential unimportance of this interquel is just so jarringly irritating. At its very best, its just going through the motions, at worst… F(x) = $$$. We know the drill.
  
  Semi-well adapted from the book (which is o.k. on its own) are the illustrations of Xixor’s first meeting with the Emperor and the far more enjoyable depictions of Boba Fett’s initial scuffle with IG-88 over Tatooine. This tasteful application is sadly nothing more than a Pyrhric victory that provides an ample segue toward further lame-o plot development.
  
  A hop, skip, and an interstellar jump at the speed of light away, Dash Rendar is introduced just to *poof away a mere page later. Paid to guide, “not to do dirty work,” the remaining team of gallant heroes including the original crews sans the carbonited Solo are left to their own devices to track down their frozen friend.
  
  However, with anything exceeding a scintilla of knowledge of Jedi, any tension that could exist is evaporated before it could ever happen. Of course, Fett absconds away because of laid in stone conclusions pursuant to the next movie. Giving way to more predictable developments, the steps to Tatooine are retraced and Vader’s (recently) introduced mechanic – Jix, moves forward with his own plan to infiltrate Jabba’s cadre of careless curs and cads.
  
  Just as nonsensical as most of this comic is, Dash Rendar, our otherwise soley motivated by profit mercenary, perks up out of nowhere to save Luke from the recently formed band of swoop bikers right outside of Mos Eisley. With a vacillating sense of motive and means, the golden boy of Star Wars is rescued just in time for the stolen Death Star plans via the Bothans to all too conveniently land at his feet (literally). Again, while none of this is in any way exciting, by adding a thematic underlay to the rest of the story, the battles of the bounty hunters can riff off and occur, which is far more interesting overall, no matter how ultimately futile.
  
  Anyways, more shit goes down that explains various upcoming happenstances in Jedi, no matter how unnecessary. And while it is cool to see Xixor (in some ways at least) far more detailed in the comics as a feisty court intriguer playing both sides to his benefit, his lack of direct action and expositions of his true goals (that the novel does a far better job of) leaves his character weak and malformed. Equally maladapted and even more mal-developed is Dash Rendar who curiously leaves once more after saving Luke’s dumb-ass. The story becomes dragged down by these developmental issues as the conclusion is revved up faster than a swoop bike race from here on out
  
  Ultimately, things are wrapped up as we would expect. Sure, the ride has been purely commercial (as it always has been) in nature (admit it!). But what else could we expect? However, as a money-grubbing experiment to test the waters for the (then) potentially new trilogy, Lucas was far more successful than he could have possibly imagined.
  
• 
  Timo

  Not the best Star Wars story I have read. Not the crappiest either.
  It did all the motions you would expect the characters you love to do, but that really isn't enough for a great story, is it?
  Rushed clumsy art also.
  But still, there were bits that were good.
• 
  Dubzor

  Woof...this didn't age well, or was it any good from the start? 1996 was a different time. SHADOWS was a monster, as a kid I saw it everywhere! Like the introduction says "everything but the movie." It's easy to imagine then that quality was less than consistent across the media rollout.
  
  If we consider the novel as the centerpiece and think of this as an adaptation, than it is a poor one. While it expands in places, for better or for worse, it glosses over major plot points and characters. Dash Rendar, a huge part of the central storyline, just shows up and is introduced in a single speech bubble. Guri does so little she may as well be abscent entirely. In fact, the comic seems more concerned with telling the story of Boba Fett delivering Han to Jabba.
  
  The dialogue is stilted, the art is ugly and inconsistent, standard 90's comics fare. There is little to redeem this title. An easy pass, especially if you've already read the book.
• 
  Luke Shea

  Fun bit of dork nostalgia. I like it when Chewbacca has to go incognito as a famous wookie bounty hunter and his whole disguise is just that he has a mullet.
• 
  Greg

  Picked this up because I grew up playing Shadows of the Empire on N64. Pretty cheesy, full of scenes where Boba Fett just talks to himself or Frozen Han (so, basically to himself). And I honestly didn't enjoy Xizor as a character that much. The art bumped this up from a 2 to a 3. I'd be curious to read the novel version at some point.
• 
  Diego Moreno

  Tal vez la más icónica novela de Star Wars, donde se sutrae un personaje muy interesante: Dash Rendar, el contrabandista más engreído que podemos encontrar.
  
  No obstante, este personaje ha llamado tanto la atención que le hicieron un video juego; ¡sí! Así es, un video juego de la consola Nintento 64 con el título homónimo a la novela, aunque el relato del juego está basado en las aventuras que pudo haber tenido él mientras Luke, Leiah y Lando intentaban rescatar a Han Solo de una de las mafias más poderosas del Imperio Galáctico.
  
  A mi me gustó mucho, pero tampoco digamos que es una obra maestra. Es lo que es, una novela bien hecha que entretiene.
• 
  David Wardrop

  To me this is an essential part of the Star Wars timeline perfectly filling in the time between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi not a trilogy or two books could take place in this short space of time only one book or in this case graphic novel. I first knew about Shadows of The Empire because of the Nintendo 64 game it was a damn good game in my opinion but differes to the story in regard to IG-88. I could be giving this 5 stars due to the tinted view of nostalgia but all Star Wars fans really sould give it a go.
• 
  Keeloca

  JIX! JIX! JIX! Not my favourite art in this one, but still a highly enjoyable comic. I've never read it straight after I've just read the novel before, so it was interesting to notice the differences. Though it did occur to me that it's SUPER weird that the Rebels would think Darth Vader behind a SECRET attempt at Luke's life. I mean, why would THEY think he'd ever hide trying to kill Luke? It makes no sense. Oh, well. Also, THIS is how I like my Boba Fett.
• 
  Devero

  Questa miniserie si situa tra L'Impero Colpisce Ancora ed Il Ritorno dello Jedi. Pubblicata per la prima volta nel 1996, ha una trama decisamente buona e da vera storia di Guerre Stellari. Disegni da sufficienti a discreti, la mia impressione è che la colorazione eccessivamente satura e pesante tenda a rovinarli.
  3 stelle e mezza.
• 
  Randy

  Takes place between Episodes 5 and 6. Its out of the Marvel Star Wars Legends. I might have enjoyed it more if I knew more of the back story from this time in the comic time line. I did however enjoy them giving a more human side to Vader.
• 
  Erik

  Moves too fast as it hits just the most important plot points of the novel, often in only a page or two before moving on rapidly to something else, though I did like the additional focus on Boba Fett's journey that's left out of the novel.
• 
  Jakub

  Quite a decent Star Wars romp from a very interesting time in the franchise history. It's got a speeder race, a nice space battle, a fermone emitting lizardman seducing Leia, a lot of Boba Fett and irritated Vader but not enough lightsabers. That's all you need to know, move along.
• 
  Evey Morgan

  3.5/5
• 
  Jeremy Stewart

  Great fill in between episodes 5 and 6. Shows Luke filling out his skillset.
• 
  Ken

  wayyy too short for a comic converted from a novel.
  Added some additional clarifications and additions which were nice I guess
• 
  Kim

  Started out incredibly slow. Picked up enough near the end to earn a third star.
• 
  Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind)

  It was fun to revisit this series. Lots of over the top moments and loved seeing Prince Xizor
• 
  Cloudy

  EU Comics #4
  Read the novel and play the game instead - this comic was disjointed and didn't convey the story well.
  At least I got to see Xizor seduce Leia in full colour glory. /s
• 
  Jesse VanDeWalker

  Substandard art paired with an overview of the Shadows plot that doesn’t do justice to the characters involved.
• 
  Seth Tomko

  The game is better.
• 
  Jordan Hughes

  A good adaptation of shadows of the empire
• 
  Christian Petrie

  I was not expecting it to reach the depth of the novel it is based on, but it did not expect it to be so light. However, it did have one extra thing in it, not found in the book.
  
  To begin Shadows of the Empire takes place between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. When it was first released it was part of a giant marketing event. There was the novel, the comics, a soundtrack, a video game, and figures. From my memory it was supposed to be all timed together, but did not work out that way.
  
  The reason for this was to fill in the time period on what happened in between the two movies. This had some strong ideas, the biggest being the introduction of the criminal syndicate Black Sun led by Xizor. Here was a villain created not be an equal in strength to Vader, but in intellect.
  
  If you want to read this story, I would recommend reading the novel first. This will give the main story line of the search for Han and the meddling of Xizor with Vader and the Emperor. The comic gives you the cliff notes version of this. It is a light version to the extent there are some jumps that if you had not read the book you wonder what happened.
  
  The extra you get in the comics that is not presented in the novel is what happens with Boba Fett and getting Han to Jabba the Hut. This is what bring up my rating on the comics. I won't spoil much on it, just to suffice it is not just a clean flight to Tattoine.
  
  In the end this is best to be read after reading the story. You can still read it, but you won't get the full depth as presented in the story.
• 
  Keith

  I really liked the novel of this story and I loved the game on N64 (I caught myself humming some of the music from the game while I was reading), so I was pretty disappointed to be disappointed in the comic. I am new to reading comics/graphic novels, so maybe my expectations aren't where they are supposed to be. I thought much of the artwork was really cool, but on occasion I had a hard time figuring out what happened in a certain scene. Sometimes I felt like the artwork was at fault, othertimes I faulted the storyteller. For example, when Dash Rendar appears to blow up in the destruction of the skyhook, if I didn't already know the storyline, I would have been extremely confused about what was happening. I also think that the story would have been better if they had the plot follow one character, like the plot of the N64 game. There sure wasn't much of Dash in the comic.